Saturday

Behind 31 points from the incomparable Zion Williamson, the fifth-ranked Blue Devils edged third-ranked North Carolina 74-73 on Friday night in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament semifinals at Spectrum Center, another classic clash between the teams in this their third recent meeting of the season.

Williamson delivered 11 of Duke’s 13 final points, powerfully applying his own unique stamp in his first full taste of this intense rivalry, and tipped in his own missed shot to supply the decisive bucket with 30.3 seconds remaining that ultimately lifted the Blue Devils to victory.

“When the game elevates, his game elevates as well,” Duke guard Tre Jones said. “With some guys who are really good, you see that, and he falls right into that. When the game is on the line, I know we have to give him the ball, because you can’t really stop him.”

After North Carolina’s Cameron Johnson misfired on the potential go-ahead 3-pointer with about 18 seconds left, RJ Barrett had a chance to put Duke further ahead with 12.4 seconds to go, but he missed a pair of free throws, and North Carolina’s Coby White raced to the Tar Heels’ end in search of the game-winner.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams opted to let the final seconds unfold without calling timeout, and White put up a long jumper just inside the 3-point arc with about four seconds remaining.

It missed. North Carolina’s Nassir Little couldn’t get enough of the ball before time expired and Duke, after losing twice to the Tar Heels in the regular season without Williamson, had claimed this epic tournament semifinal that felt more like the championship game.

White reacted by pulling up his jersey and burying his face, while Williamson, wearing a wide winning grin, pounded his chest in triumph. Later, seated in the Duke locker room and considering the recovery process from the sprained knee that cost him essentially six games to end the regular season, Williamson said this chapter in the Duke-Carolina rivalry exceeded his expectations.

“The crowd was into it, it was a back-and-fort game, what could be better?” he said. “Why would I pass up on this experience, to play in the biggest rivalry ever? You can’t go creating moments like that anywhere else.”

Indeed, this was special, these rivals trading punches and loading up counterpunches throughout, beneath an atmosphere wired with electricity.

“We came here with one goal, and that was to win this tournament,” Jones said. “(The Tar Heels) had beaten us twice this year. None of us want to lose to the same team even twice, but definitely not three times. We came in knowing that was on the line, but also knowing other things were on the line.”

Duke will meet surprising Florida State, the tournament’s fourth seed, in Saturday night’s championship game, a matchup that continues an exclusive streak. It’s the 23rd straight season that either Duke or North Carolina has reached the ACC Tournament final.

Johnson’s 23 points led North Carolina on Friday night. The Tar Heels (27-6), the tournament’s second seed who had won 15 of their last 16 games, also got 14 points and 13 rebounds from Luke Maye.

North Carolina built a 13-point lead during the first half, but ultimately went just 4-for-27 from 3-point range, including 1-for-13 during the second half, shooting issues that Williams bemoaned afterward.

“We didn’t play well enough to win,” Williams said. “You go 4-for-27, you deserve to be beat, let’s be honest. You live by the jump shot, you die by the jump shot.”

This third meeting in 24 nights between Duke and North Carolina already was unique with the transcendent Williamson available and coming off his monster 29-point performance in the tournament quarterfinals, a return with vengeance from the sprained knee he suffered Feb. 20, on the opening possession of North Carolina’s visit to Duke.

In the tunnel before the game, Javin DeLaurier exhorted his Duke teammates that this was personal against the Tar Heels. By the end, with the lead changing hands four times during the game’s final four minutes, things proceeded as if toward a dramatic conclusion.

Johnson’s transition bucket between Barrett and Reddish while absorbing a foul had him clapping from a seated position. Maye’s driving score past Williamson, who committed a foul, had Maye punching the air in fired-up celebration and North Carolina leading 71-67.

Williamson’s three-point play answered for Duke and served to put the fifth foul on North Carolina forward Garrison Brooks. Then, Jordan Goldwire picked up a loose ball after Barrett lost it on a drive and converted for a 72-71 Duke lead with 1:46 left.

Nassir Little’s follow dunk lifted the Tar Heels ahead 73-72 at the 48-second mark, the precursor to Williamson’s decisive put-back that became the difference with 30.3 seconds to go.

“That’s just my competitive spirit,” Williamson said, “so after I missed, my instinct was just to get the rebound, come back down and go up. But I realized I could just tip it in, and it went my way.”

The score was tied 44-44 at halftime, after Duke worked its way back from a 13-point deficit. The Blue Devils hit five of their last six shots of the half, with Williamson dunking a lob and then getting a 3-pointer to roll around the rim and in during the final 1:25 of the first half.

Williamson, the freshman phenom coming off his ACC Tournament record 13-for-13 shooting a night earlier in Duke’s defeat of Syracuse, had 16 first-half points.

He pumped in 12 points across the final 5:58 of the first half, after North Carolina led 33-20 on Brooks’ dunk off White’s pick-and-roll pass.

Johnson’s 16 points paced the Tar Heels in the first half. The senior swingman’s full offensive package was on display early, as he poured in 14 of the Tar Heels’ first 22 points — with a pair of pure 3s, a couple of catch-and-shoot jumpers, and transition buckets, too.

This played out as part of a stirring environment, an in-state scene between these two college basketball elites particularly crackling from the beginning.

A taped message from Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, among others, appeared overhead on the arena videoboards during pregame warm-ups, and Krzyzewski promptly was greeted with a cascade of intensifying boos.

Moments later, when Brooks and Williamson crouched at midcourt for the opening tip-off, the spectators in the arena were on their feet, the anticipatory energy palpable as ever.

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